Firefox and Thunderbird crash immediately after installation in 32-bit v 3.8

[drrdf]

Hi firenice03,

Yes it is good that I managed to find a solution, although it took quite a bit of investigation. My solution may hopefully be useful to some others who are still running older PCs.

Yes I have been through this process previously with numlock. I now accept that on my two 64 bit desktop PCs and on my two 32 bit desktop ones I have to switch numlock off every time after logging in to Linux lite. I have tried all combinations but none of them including the supposed option in Lite Tweaks have worked on these desktops. Strangely enough I did use that enable/disable facility with a laptop and it worked; but it does not work with any of my desktops. Even where you set Numlock off for boot up in the BIOS Linux lite turns it back on again after you have logged in and you have to turn it off manually. I have even tried setting numlock on in the BIOS and then using the Lite Tweaks set to off, but that does not make any difference; numlock still then stays on although it has been set in the Linux Tweaks to be off. So I have concluded that the Tweak sometimes works but mostly does not.

It may be something to do with Intel v AMD cpus. The laptop on which the Tweak works has an Intel processor; all 4 of my desktops have AMD processors.

[firenice03]

Good to hear you have solved your browser/email dilemma..


As for the NumLock...

(apart from the numlock on problem even when you have set it to off in the BIOS)

Have you checked Lite Tweaks - there is a NumLock enable/disable option within... Perhaps this may help..

[drrdf]

Just in case there is anyone else out there who has this problem, I have now found a complete solution. I really like Linux lite (apart from the numlock on problem even when you have set it to off in the BIOS) and so did not want to have to lose it on those older "not powerful enough" PCs. The thought of having to run Ubuntu Mate or Puppy as the only option left did not appeal to me. Quite a few users have an older PC which they may keep for some mundane tasks or for back-up if their main machine fails. You can keep your "not powerful enough" old AMD XP (non SSE2) PC going with internet and a local e-mail client if you know what to do. You do not have to send it to landfill just yet.

I tried quite a few other browsers claimed to run without SSE2, but none of them did. Some started up and then soon bombed out; others would not run at all.  SRware iron, QtWeb, SlimBoat, SeaMonkey, Opera, Maxthon3, Midori, Konqueror, Light, Epihpany and Palemoon (nonsse2) all failed to run. Then I had a stroke of luck. I discovered that the Tor browser, which is actually included in the 3.8 Linux lite  menu on option "Lite Software" runs without any problems, and is not too slow. For me so far on these two PCs it has not crashed once.  Then I discovered that the e-mail client Evolution ran without any problems, after I had downloaded and installed it via the command line from the Ubuntu repository.

So, all you need to do is delete Firefox and Thunderbird using the Install/Remove/Software option on the menu; remove the Firefox icon on the panel; install Tor from the Lite Software option on the menu; and then install Evolution on the command line from the Ubuntu repository.  Then you will have a very usable old, "not powerful enough" PC running Linux lite like a dream.

SOLVED

[drrdf]

OK, thanks Jerry. It is now clear that Linux lite is not for older machines, which should be using Ubuntu Mate, LXLE or one of the other OSs suitable for older machines. The problem of course is that like us as humans, all machines become older machines with the passage of time. (By the way: I am much too old for these things being 80 this year!!) In the installation process for Linux lite 3.8 it states "...or for those who would like to revive older hardware." That is clearly not true in terms of what you are now stating, and I suggest it needs to be changed?

[Jerry]

1. If I had a more powerful machine I and others would not be looking for an OS claiming to be suitable for older machines. So what you are now stating Jerry is that Linux lite is not suitable for older machines. I suggest you therefore change your publicity to state that reality so that users of older machines can look for a suitable OS for their older machines, which you are now indicating that Linux lite is not?

Yes, that is correct. As you can see from these submissions https://www.linuxliteos.com/hardware.php Linux Lite is not suitable for older machines. Wait, is that a Pentium III processor I see? Someone is hacking my database.

[trinidad]

AMD CPUs can be tricky on older (4 years or more) machines and the OEM implementations are not consistent across platforms and boards even up to current machines. There are ways to make them work, (over-clocking) and no BIOS ACPI controls, etc. but generally speaking I have steered you correctly to install Firefox ESR which by the way has the available Spectre mitigations included as it is the current version in Debian 9, and it will work with your board and CPU.

TC 

[drrdf]

I have just discovered that this same subject in effect has already been covered in another topic here https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/installing-software/cpu-without-sse2-crashes-firefox-update/. I have also found that this is now a known problem with Firefox and Thunderbird updates which all require SSE2 now without any indication of this. It still does not explain though why it is that the latest release of Ubuntu Mate does not have this problem; it may be that they are shipping with older versions of Firefox and Thunderbird which still work without requiring SSE2.

I am now looking for other browsers which will run without needing SSE2, such as Midori and Konqueror, and am lead to believe that Evolution still runs without SSE2?

So thank you all for your help.

[drrdf]

Thank you all for your replies.

1. If I had a more powerful machine I and others would not be looking for an OS claiming to be suitable for older machines. So what you are now stating Jerry is that Linux lite is not suitable for older machines. I suggest you therefore change your publicity to state that reality so that users of older machines can look for a suitable OS for their older machines, which you are now indicating that Linux lite is not? In the installation process for Linux lite 3.8 it is stated on screen "...or for those who would like to revive older hardware." I suggest you need to remove that incorrect statement then and make it something like "only for powerful machines".

2. As I have already pointed out these particular 2 machines run Firefox and Thunderbird perfectly with the latest release of Ubuntu Mate. So Ubuntu Mate is suitable for older machines and everything runs perfectly but Linux llite evidently is not.

3. Hi Ottawagrant: yes I am using different video cards on each of these 2 32-bit PCs; but the NVidia card you refer to is a 1GB one on another 64-bit PC; that of course runs perfectly. The video cards on the 2 32-bit PCs are a 5i2 Mb GForce 6200 and a 128 Mb Radeon 9200SE; I am using the  nouveau driver on both. I will try your tip and see whether that solves the problem. These PCs are of around 2003 vintage and were originally running XP..

[trinidad]

It's just the old AMD CPU and the incomplete BIOS these came with. Recommend Firefox ESR and no Thunderbird. Use web mail. I have a 14 year old 32bit HP machine with a Pentium 4 and 1gig of RAM  that runs LL 3.8 with the latest Firefox perfectly fine only swapping occasionally.

TC

[Ottawagrant]

drrdf: This is just a guess. I noticed your computer has nVidia drivers. Click menu < all < Install drivers. Click on the 'additional drivers' tab. Check to see if you are using the nVidia proprietary driver or the nouveau driver. If you're using the nouveau driver change to the nVidia one, & reboot. As I said, this is just a guess, but I had an Acer computer with nvidia drivers. If the nouveau driver was installed Firefox would crash every time I tried to launch it. Worth a look.

[Jerry]

There is nothing here to fix. If you had a powerful machine, this wouldn't be happening. Because you have a low spec machine, you should opt for a low spec browser. Cheers.

[drrdf]

Hi Jerry: I have posted this problem in a thread which claims to have been resolved, but is clearly not so. I have installed Linux lite v 3.8 on two 32 bit PCs (Asrock motherboards, 1 GB RAM, AMD XP CPUs ,1900), and immediately after installation Firefox and Thunderbird will not run, but crash straight away, producing the Mozilla crash report window. F & T however run properly without any problem in the 64-bit version of Linux lite 3.8 on a 64-bit PC.

As I have suggested in that other thread, there are a number of items posted in various places on the Internet and on other OS forums, which suggest that this problem could be due to the wrong versions of Firefox and Thunderbird being included in the distributed OSs - i.e. the 64-bit versions instead of the 32-bit versions.  This would make sense from my observations and is possibly because Firefox and Thunderbird (F & T) are carried over into Linux lite from Ubuntu and at the time the 32-bit version of Linux lite 3.8 was complied Ubuntu had the wrong versions of Firefox and Thunderbird within it; since then Ubuntu have corrected their error, and now have the correct 32-bit versions of F & T included, which is why F & T run properly in the newest release of Ubuntu, but Linux lite have not corrected this error which probably rolled over from Ubuntu?

This would also explain why this problem does not exist in the 3.8 64-bit version of Linux lite. The solution it seems is to delete the present wrong versions of F & T in 32-bit Linux lite and then install the proper 32-bit versions of F & T direct from the Mozilla site. I have not yet done this, but would suggest therefore that these wrong versions of F & T in Linux lite 3.8 should perhaps be corrected.